Some soccer

Reasons I really like Ian's soccer picture:
1. He looks like he actually enjoys playing
2. It gives the illusion that it is summer time, and not rainy and cold, and that they play outside on a soccer field and not in the elementary school gym.

Saturday at his game he kept walking off the court randomly and saying, "I'm tired". Maybe next season will be a little better....

The thing about james

is he is fickle. He throws his bunny out of his bed and then cries because he wants it back.
and he is easy - he would chase a ball around all day, infact he freaks out over balls or balloons.
and he has started this screaming thing when he wants something.
and he has started giving kisses.
and he literally hyperventilates when his dad comes home because he is so excited.
and he wants to cuddle every stuffed animal he finds.
and he surprises me and amazes me just as much as his brother did - and I didn't think that was possible.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at the Leonard's eating yummy food and playing Rockband. Ian threw up twice (shocker) and we discovered that Jamesy really REALLY likes pomegranite salad. His hands and face were totally stained pink all day.




Luke fell asleep on grandma.

Tommy had his birthday party today and ian was so happy to have been invited. It was a Kung Fu Panda theme and Amy made Special Ingredient Soup and Dim Sum for the kids.

Top five conversations this week

me: Ian don't do that.
ian: please mom - you can have a piece of my halloween candy.
me: I don't want your candy.
ian: you can have two pieces of my halloween candy.

.......................................................
me: it kind of smells in here.
ian: yeah, smells like china.

.......................................................
me: ian, what happened to your hand?
ian: a monster bit it - you see the blood all over?
me: not really. when did he bite you?
ian: august 17th. my birthday party.

.......................................................
ian (as he grabs on to the chandelier over the table): Mom, we not live in the jade palace.
me: No we don't. please get off the chandelier.
ian: we live in washington.

......................................................
me: where are you going?
ian (with his coat, shoes, backpack and two light sabers): I'm going to the forest to whack the monster.

Closer to 40 than 20

I am 1000% in love with this guy.

Who just happened to turn 32 this weekend. So we took a trip to portland with the penrods to hang out with the henries.

All of the kids loved eachother and Ian is getting to the age where he kind of disappears (from us - as in he doesn't need us anymore) when there are kids to play with.

It turns out that Jude is as obsessed with Scooby Doo (they are all watching the movie) as Ian is. perfect.

Jamesy hung out with Simon most of the time but I never managed to get a picture of them together. He also didn't take naps or sleep saturday night at the hotel and was kind of miserable.

Simon.

Ian and Lola.


Michelle and Evie.

We crashed Jude's soccer pizza party for dinner.

Our hotel was downtown - so sunday we woke up and walked around for a while. Here is Ian enjoying the waterfront and the beautiful fall foliage.

Then we ate lunch with Micah and Marisa and spent the ride home talking about how nice it would be to live just a little closer.

It has been too long

since I hung out with Cherie and her kids. Today we met at a kid's museum - we didn't get as much talking time as we wanted - but the kids had fun.

Ian spent at least 2/3 of the time in this trucker cab - that is Abby riding shotgun.

The water station was Jamesy's favorite.

Josh called me Aunt Ian all day - it was funny.

Jessie, Ben and a little of Josh.


Poor little James wants to do everything the big kids are doing.

The Night

Halloween ended up being a lot more hectic than i expected (hence the lack of pictures). Ian loved trick-or-treating, of course. We had so many trick-or-treaters come to the house that we ran out of candy and he started handing out his own.

Grandma and Grandpa Leonard came over dressed in their new traditional Chinese dress from Hong Kong. They looked great.


After that we headed over to the Barkers for a Halloween party. 5 families, 18 kids, and a bonus room that saved the adults from the chaos. it was perfect.

And here are the boys coming off their candy highs this morning....

Jack-o-lanterns

Last night we had a pumpkin carving party.

Ian's pumpkin was grown in our garden.

The Barkers were there.


And Josh came all the way from Texas. Jamesy wasn't feeling very good so Josh held him a pretty good portion of the night. He must have been missing Jett.

He got some love from Brooke, too - who also brought pumpkin cookies to decorate for dessert.

The final products.

Halloween Preview

I can't believe how impossible it is two get a good picture of the boys together.



Add Halloween costumes to the mix and it gets even worse...
Saturday night we had our ward Halloween party - here are the boys in their star wars costumes.





Jamesy eating his first cotton candy at the party.